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Online ISSN : 2349-8080 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorinchiefijcrbp@gmail.com |
Polymer membranes remain a popular preference as solid support for biomolecular analyses, especially for the discovery of specific proteins or peptides and nucleic acid sequences. But low abundance biomarker proteins detection is frequently based on various types of membrane-based devices. Decreasing of the protein detection limits is vital in commercial applications such as lateral flow assays and in western blots extensively used in proteomics. These currently suffer from inadequate detection sensitivity and low retention for low molecular weight proteins. Normally metal nanoparticles have high binding capacity towards protein and exhibit unique properties in terms of particle aggregation, photoemission, electrical and heat conductivity, catalytic activity and high fluorescence capacity. Bi2O3 nanoparticles blended membrane offers the advantage of being able to prepare artificial membranes with improved detection sensitivity of lowering of the protein in Blotting application. In this work, we focused on the role of nano composite membrane exhibit high protein binding activity and provide increased sensitivity for detection of low molecular weight protein in Western Blot. The effects of Bi2O3 nanoparticles as additive on the preparation of nitrocellulose blend membranes were investigated in terms of detecting low molecular weight protein. Bi2O3 nanoparticles was synthesized by precipitation method using sodium hydroxide solution as an reducing agent. A nitrocellulose membrane was modified by dispersing nanoparticles of bismuth oxide in a nitrocellulose polymer solution with varying concentration of nanoparticles. The membranes were prepared with 30 wt.% of polymer nitrocellulose by phase inversion method. Acetone and deionized water were employed as solvent and coagulant, respectively. The membrane modified by nanoparticles and synthesized bismuth oxide nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis Spectroscopy, SEM with EDAX, PSD, TEM and XRD. The detection sensitivity of normal and modified nitrocellulose membrane was assessed statistically via densitometry analysis. Overall, the detection sensitivity was 25 times higher for blended membrane than the normal as they effectively capture trace proteins by keeping small molecules on the metal membrane.
